The Age of Trump And What Art Can Do About It?

Political observers in the US see Trump’s presidency as ushering in a ‘post-truth’ age, one in which tweeted accusations and colorful ‘alternative facts’ take the place of reasoned debate. So what can artists do about it, if they fear threats to democracy, civil rights, or the environment? After all, the forces they are opposing use in exaggeration, misinformation, fantasy and jingoism, just like political art has always done. But perhaps this challenge is also an opportunity. A chance for art to return to the older, quieter tradition of satire: less to denounce aggressively (a role apparently seized by the President of the United States) than to humorously expose the foibles of the powerful, and our own as well.

Andrei Pop is an Associate Professor, Committee on Social Thought, Art History, and the College of The University of Chicago. He is interested in the relation of art and science, in dramatic and narrative art, and in how modernity deals with the past. His current work concerns pictures as logical objects linking fantasy and fiction to scientific activities with a proximate goal to defend a politically engaged social history of art by emphasizing the truth-directedness of representations. Join us at the coming public lecture by Professor Pop to know about satire, contemporary arts and American politics.